Still as "the Zidonians" are mentioned among the nations which "oppressed Israel" in the time of the Judges,[1438] we must conclude that differences arose between them and their southern neighbours in some portion of this period, and that, war having broken out between them, the advantage rested with Sidon.

The record of "Judges" is incomplete, and does not enable us even to fix the date of the Sidonian "oppression." We can only say that it was anterior to the judgeship of Jephthah, and was followed, like the other "oppressions," by a "deliverance." The war with the Philistines brought the period of Sidonian ascendancy to an end, and introduces us to the second period of Phoenician history, or that of the hegemony of Tyre.

The supposed date of the change is B.C.
1252.[1439] 2.

Phoenicia under the hegemony of Tyre (B.C.

1252-877) Influx of the Sidonian population raises Tyre to the first place among the cities (about B.C.